The Mystic - Bonham’s First Theatre

An article in the Bonham Daily Favorite of September 21, 1948 contains the photo to the right, and states that Bonham's first full-time motion picture show - The Mystic - opened on December 27, 1910 on North Main Street.

In January 1913 the Bonham Daily Favorite reported that The Mystic had obtained a new picture machine, the Edison Kinetoscope, an "up to the minute" machine that was "non-flickering."  "Manager Watson has kept his theatre up to the standard ever since he's been in the business here and does not spare either expense nor time in keeping his show first-class all the time."

The advertisement featuring Little Mary Pickford is from 1913.

In April 1913 The Mystic Theatre was shut down for several weeks.  When reopened there were "new opera chairs, a concrete floor, an electric piano, new fixtures, a handsome front and numerous other improvements." 

In 1913 there were two other motion picture theatres in Bonham - The Opera House and The Best, which was on "the south side."

In May 1913 The Mystic added a "brand new automatic piano orchestrian, which has a "flute, pipes, bass and snare drum effects and is the first one in the city."

The Best was opened in 1912 between the Alexander Hotel and T. F. Carter's Barber Shop.

​An article from 1956 says that Charlie Watson, the owner of The Mystic, bought the Best Theatre with Steward Artledge and "ran it until the first World War called the boys to the colors."  The newspaper reports that there was "a war tax in 1915 and [we] had to add 2c to our admission.  The banks couldn't keep the town supplied with pennies so the Best and Mystic had to have them shipped from the mint in Denver.  [Charley and Steward sold the Best to Bob Robb and Harold Rawley in 1918 who later sold their interest to H. S. Cole in 1920.

Apparently The Mystic was still open in 1924.

And The Best closed in November 1956.